Teller on his playing weight at the offensive tackle spot, and how he came to end up at the position

Teller on his playing weight at the offensive tackle spot, and how he came to end up at the position

Wyatt Teller saw what was going on around him. He didn’t know if he could do anything about Virginia Tech’s attrition, but he was willing to offer his services to offensive line coach Jeff Grimes.

After Teller came to Grimes at the end of Wednesday night’s practice with a proposal to switch sides on the line of scrimmage, it didn’t take Grimes long to come back with a response. By Thursday, Teller’s phone was buzzing with a text message from Grimes.

“You’re an offensive lineman now,” said Grimes in the text.

So, Teller’s education as on offensive tackle is in full swing. He has just three days of practice under his belt at left tackle, and there’s clearly a lot to learn.

“It’s a totally different ballgame to offensive line,” said Teller, a 6-foot-5, 282-pound freshman from Bealeton. “It’s a lot different. If I go back (to defensive line), it’s going to take a lot to get back in that state of mind. I’ve only been doing (offensive line) for three days, and it is difficult.”

Teller didn’t have any pressure to make this move. It was all his own doing.

“The first thing I thought of was, ‘Could I do this?’ and ‘Could I help out the team?’” Teller said. “That was the first thing that came to mind, and that was the first thing I thought of when I asked coach.”

Though he was immediately listed Thursday as a second team left tackle behind fellow freshman Jonathan McLaughlin, Teller worked in Saturday’s scrimmage with the third team. In the scrimmage, quarterback Logan Thomas completed 5 of 15 passes for 72 yards, including a 30-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Joshua Stanford, and two interceptions. Another apparent Thomas interception was negated due to a penalty.

Teller played offensive tackle in addition to defensive end at Liberty High, but playing offensive tackle in college is a different animal altogether.

“Offensive tackle in high school didn’t help me out at all for this – nothing,” Teller said. “Everything is different. My kick-steps aren’t close to where they need to be. My stance was horrible. Everything is critiqued. It was kind of like on defense you’re hitting them. Now, I’m the one getting hit, so it’s a little bit different. I’ve just got to sit back, take the blows and stay in front.”

As far as Teller is concerned, he can play tackle at 282 pounds, but he knows the coaching staff would like to see him get up to 290 or so. His take on offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler’s scheme is that players can excel at any position as long as they’re fast and as long as linemen can get good push, regardless of size.

Teller, who was considered by most recruiting analysts to be one of the nation’s top 20 defensive end or top 35 defensive tackle prospects in the class of 2013, was also recruited by some schools as an offensive lineman. He said both Oregon and South Carolina were interested in him playing on either side of the ball.

Teller added Grimes said he had some of the best offensive tackle film from high school Grimes saw while recruiting the ’13 class, and he would’ve offered Teller as an offensive tackle if Grimes was still an assistant coach at Auburn.

“I don’t know what happened in the staff meeting, but (defensive coordinator Bud) Foster and (defensive line) coach (Charley) Wiles, they’re behind me 100 percent helping out the team on (the offensive) side,” Teller said. “They said it was an unselfish act, that it was awesome and they’re so proud of me and stuff like that. So, it’s not hard feelings or anything like that.”

Foster believes Teller is a year away from being a big contributor on either side of the ball – and Foster still has at least some faint aspirations of possibly getting Teller back on the defensive side.

“He wanted to do that, which just shows him wanting to put the team first,” said Foster regarding Teller’s willingness to switch to the offensive line. “It says a big thing about the kid. I told him, ‘Go over there, and we’ll get you back (on the defensive line) hopefully.’ He’s a good prospect, but he’s still a year away either way. Maybe offensive line-wise down the road he could potentially help us.”

Teller said he wouldn’t mind redshirting if that’s what Tech’s coaches have in store for him, but he’ll be ready to play if called upon. He hopes to be on the travel team, and he wants to be on the sideline Aug. 31 in Atlanta for Tech’s opener against Alabama, which was ranked No. 1 in the preseason Associated Press rankings that were released Saturday. Tech was outside the top 25, receiving 86 voting points (28th among teams receiving votes).

After Saturday’s scrimmage, Tech coach Frank Beamer made it sound like he could have playing time in the near future in mind for Teller.

“I think we get him ready to play as soon as possible,” Beamer said.

While working against defensive ends J.R. Collins and Dadi Nicolas in practice and the scrimmage, Teller said he hasn’t gotten a full dose of what ends at the college level can do. Thus far, the ends have taken it easy on him, but he knows the training wheels are about to come off.

“They know that I’m new at it,” Teller said. “They know that I’m not the best offensive tackle. They’re not like grabbing my throat or hitting me in the face or anything. That comes next week.”

As Teller preps for possible playing time at a new position, Foster will continue evaluating outside linebackers in the wake of sophomore Ronny Vandyke’s season-ending right shoulder surgery. Josh Trimble worked with the first team defense in the scrimmage, while fellow walk-on Derek DiNardo played with the second team.

“It’s a big blow,” said Foster about losing Vandyke. “I say it’s a big blow – I feel good about Trimble. He proved last year on (special) teams that he can really make some plays in space. He’s really improved. Derek DiNardo is solid as the day is long, really improved, but Ronny was getting ready, I think, to take that next step that I wanted him (to take) last year…because he’s got great leadership qualities, high motor, just a lot of things. When he played the game, he was just playing faster, more instinctive. Now, we’re going to start over again.”

Foster said he definitely intends to use freshman Kendall Fuller, who is working as a first team cornerback, at outside linebacker in the nickel package.

Foster hasn’t moved anybody behind Trimble and DiNardo, but Foster added there’s always the possibility of sliding sophomore Dahman McKinnon from the “backer” linebacker spot, where he backs up Tariq Edwards, to outside linebacker. McKinnon played last year as a backup outside linebacker.

For now, Trimble is getting most of the attention. Last year, he was a key member on special teams as a member of all four of Tech’s primary special teams units. Now, his responsibilities have increased even more.

“It’s definitely a lot more fun,” said Trimble, a 5-11, 200-pound Ashburn native, of working with the first team defense. “You feel like you’re involved a lot more.

“In the defense’s eyes, I think we’re set. I think we’ve got the guys that we need. We have everyone at the positions that we need. We have guys that are stepping up tremendously.”

Foster and Grimes aren’t the only assistant coaches having to do some juggling. Running backs coach Shane Beamer is in a bit of scramble mode as well after sophomore J.C. Coleman went down Wednesday with two sprained ankles, and senior Tony Gregory’s career ended Thursday with a fourth torn anterior cruciate ligament.

“It’s been an emotional couple of days for me on that one,” said Shane regarding Gregory’s injury. “He’s just a great kid. He and I have spent a lot of time in my office talking and things like that. Most guys, you have one or two (ACL tears), and they call it a career. I mean, this guy had four, and he wanted to keep playing on this one. He wanted to keep playing, but he doesn’t have any bone left in his knee. There was nothing they could do about it.

“The day he got hurt, or the next day, he knew he had torn it and his career was over. (Trainer) Mike Goforth gave him the opportunity of going home and getting some rest because he didn’t sleep the night before, or coming to my meeting, and he said he wanted to come to my meeting so he didn’t get anymore behind mentally.

“He’s in great spirits…I just hate it for him. This is my 14th year in coaching and I don’t know that I’ve ever met another player that football is more important to, and that enjoys football more than he does. That’s hard, real hard.”

Shane is optimistic Coleman can get back in time for the Alabama game. If he’s back to full strength, Shane said he’ll use Coleman, redshirt freshman Trey Edmunds and redshirt freshman Chris Mangus in the backfield against Alabama. Mangus opened preseason as a running back before getting moved to wide receiver, and he was moved back to running back after the injuries to Coleman and Gregory.

If Coleman can’t go against Alabama, Edmunds better be ready for a lot of work. Redshirt freshman Joel Caleb, who was moved from receiver to running back at the start of preseason practices, is suspended for the Alabama game due to a violation of team rules.

Shane only wanted Edmunds on the field for about 12 plays in the 78-play scrimmage, but Shane also hoped to get Edmunds more than just the one carry he received. Edmunds ran for a loss of one yard. To safeguard his remaining running backs in the scrimmage, Shane had Edmunds, Caleb and Mangus running only behind Tech’s first team offensive line, which consisted of McLaughlin, left guard Caleb Farris, center David Wang, right guard Andrew Miller and right tackle Laurence Gibson.

“We need to put (Edmunds) in full body armor and a glass case when he’s just walking around campus and to the dorm and back or whatever,” Shane said. “Obviously, he can’t get hurt. We’ve got to be very smart about how we use him. It gives Joel Caleb a chance to get a lot more reps. I hate it for Mangus from a receiver standpoint. He was really doing some good things at receiver. Now, we’ve got to bring him back to tailback. We’ll have somewhat of a package for him that utilizes him as a receiver and a tailback. We just won’t overload him mentally.

“There’s no question when you look at our top four coming out of the spring, and you look at those names that were on that (spring depth chart) and look at it now, it’s completely blown up.”